HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
39 
curious desire to imitate nature, old gardens all over Italy have been altered and entirely spoilt. 
In many of the old villas round Rome, Florence, and all the great cities of Italy, terraces and 
parterres have been ruthlessly removed to make way for plantations of deciduous trees, lawns, 
and carpet bedding, than which nothing can be more out of place. Let us hope that Italians 
in the twentieth century will once again turn to the models that still fortunately remain, and, 
jealously guarding these from further ruthless spoliation, once more return to the principles of 
their older school of garden designers, great artists who gave the art of gardenage to the whole 
of Western Europe. 
